This blog displays scenic photos taken from around Grand Marais, MI. Photos of rockhounding and nature adventures are also posted. Information is included about the Gitche Gumee Agate and History Museum and other scientific subjects. For more information about the museum and our unique mineral art, books, DVDs, and Online rockhounding classes please go to www.agatelady.com.

About Me

After more than a million miles of corporate travel, I moved to my family's home town of Grand Marais, MI in 1994. I now operate the Gitche Gumee Agate and History Museum as well as earn a living as a mineral artist and writer/designer. I hope that this blog will help me share my adventures and art with family, friends, museum patrons, and customers. You can learn more about the museum at www.agatelady.com.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Mars Rover Curiosity Photos

When I finished up at the museum last night I had a meeting and then when I was thinking about going for a hike -- the rain came in buckets. Needless to say, I just headed home. So for today's blog posting, I checked in to see what is happening with the Mars rover, Curiosity from the NASA webpage: http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

The above map shows the route on lower Mount Sharp that NASA's Curiosity
followed in April and early May 2015, in the context of the surrounding
terrain. Numbers along the route identify the sol, or Martian day, on
which it completed the drive reaching that point, as counted since its
2012 landing.

The map covers an area about one-third of a mile (half a kilometer) across. North is up. After the observations and measurements made by Curiosity's instruments
at the base of Mount Shields, the rover resumed its approach to Logan
Pass, on a route passing west of "Jocko Butte." The Sol 976 drive was
completed on May 5, 2015.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Texas A&M Univ.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recorded the above photos of the sun setting at the
close of the mission's 956th Martian day, or sol (April 15, 2015), from
the rover's location in Gale Crater. The four images shown in sequence here were taken over a span of 6 minutes, 51 seconds. This was the first sunset
observed in color by Curiosity. Dust in the Martian atmosphere
has fine particles that permit blue light to penetrate the atmosphere
more efficiently than longer-wavelength colors. That causes the blue
colors in the mixed light coming from the sun to stay closer to sun's
part of the sky, compared to the wider scattering of yellow and red
colors. The effect is most pronounced near sunset, when light from the
sun passes through a longer path in the atmosphere than it does at
mid-day.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Martian outcrop above shows where pale rock meets darker overlying rock. This is an example of a geological contact, which can reveal clues about how the environmental conditions produced the rock types. NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took this image after finishing an uphill drive of about
72 feet (22 meters) on the 991st Martian day, or sol of the rover's
work on Mars (May 21, 2015).